1000 Pounds of Wild-Caught Louisiana Shrimp - FREE

Yesterday, hundreds gathered in Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle where fishermen and women from the Louisiana Shrimp Association were handing out bag after bulging bag of FREE Louisiana shrimp.

Sound too good to be true? Well, there is a bit of catch – no pun intended. The Louisiana Shrimp Association conducted the shrimp give-away in conjunction with Food & Water Watch as a means of highlighting the plight of small-scale Gulf Coast shrimpers. 

Here in the United States, over 90% of the shrimp consumed is farm-raised in Southeast Asia or Latin America because it is sold on the U.S. market for less than wild-caught domestic shrimp. But as we all know, everything comes with a price.

Imported farm-raised shrimp are raised in cramped and antibiotic-laden ponds that must be constantly flushed with freshwater. Additionally, these ponds are often located in coastal areas where mangrove forests are chopped down to make room for the farms, preventing local fishing communities from access to the sea and their livelihoods.

As a result of these cheap, imported farm-raised shrimp, shrimpers like those from the Louisiana Shrimp Association are often forced to sell their shrimp at or below the cost of capture, thereby threatening their livelihood and our domestic food production.

Read our press release from the event.